Melting the Ice Queen

Alicia Carroll and Scott Armstrong have the perfect "no-strings attached" relationship. Sizzling sex is always okay, but sleepovers are only for weekends, and emotions are strictly forbidden. As a divorce lawyer, Alicia knows better than anyone that relationships never last, so its better to avoid commitments at all costs. No matter how warm and safe she feels in Scotts arms.

A lawyer himself, Scott respects the rules Alicia has set in place. But after two years as part-time lovers and best friends, Scott can no longer pretend their relationship is merely casual. He wants more from Alicia than just her bodyhe wants her heart, forever. But first hes going to have to melt the ice thats protecting it!

Chapter Eighteen

They didnt talk in the car. The things they still needed to discuss couldnt be said while hurtling down the highway. As though he knew this intermission would allow her anxieties to bubble inside her, gaining strength, he held tight to her hand the whole time. And she clung to him, knowing that with Scott, if no one else, she didnt have to be afraid.

With Scott she was, finally, safe.

The huge tank of tropical fish glowed a soothing blue as they turned into the bedroom, illuminating her giant four poster with its downy pillows and duvet. All she wanted was to be in there, with him, forever. But she knew she hadnt earned that right quite yet.

Wrapping his strong hands around her face, he massaged her nape, melting away what she really hoped was the last of her inhibitions. In a clear effort to make it impossible for her to do anything other than relax, he rested his lips against her forehead and murmured to her in a calming voice that was like the stroke of velvet across her skin.

"Tell me again," he said.

"I love you." It was so much easier like thiswith whispers in the shadows, the gentle glide of his hands down the curve of her spine, and the warm satin of his flesh beneath her fingertips when she untucked his shirt and undershirt and reached for his skin. "I love you."

Those tender lips of his began a slow descent, running from her temple to her cheek, across the bridge of her nose, and finally, sweetly, to her lips. Angling his head just enough, his growing desire rumbling deep inside his chest, he tasted her with his tongue. Just a little. Just enough for her spiraling lust to collect in the tips of her swollen breasts and curl into the farthest depths of her belly. Clenching her thighs together against the insistent ache, she surged into him, but he pulled back.

Distracting her with his busy hands, which squeezed the halves of her butt together, rubbing her against an erection so hard and thick she doubted she could handle it all, he zeroed in for the kill.

"Why is it so hard for you to give me that? Dont you know how happy it makes me? I would do anything for you." Another stroke of his hands a thrust of his hips a lick of his tongue against her mouth and Oh, God, he was going to make her come before theyd even taken off their clothes. "Anything. Why can you give me your body but not your feelings?"

Pausing in her desperate quest to undo all his buttons and get this shirt off him, she waited for her throat to close up. It didnt. Together with him, like this, it was impossible for the fear to get her.

"Because," she said helplessly. "I drive men away. If I love them, they leave me. And I never want you to leave me."